a smiling woman reading a newspaper on the bus

A flash in the pan (Newspaper idioms)

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a smiling woman reading a newspaper on the bus
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by Kate Woodford

Today’s post is the latest in my ‘newspaper idioms and phrases’ series. The aim of this series is to keep you supplied with up-to-date, frequent English idioms. As with previous ‘newspaper idioms’ posts, these expressions all come from a range of national newspapers published on the same day. Continue reading “A flash in the pan (Newspaper idioms)”

Beds of roses and sore thumbs (Newspaper idioms)

Chevanon Wonganuchitmetha/EyeEm/GettyImages

by Kate Woodford

Readers of this blog often ask us for posts on English idioms. Understandably, they also tell us that it’s important that the idioms are used now. One way that we make sure we focus on up to date idioms is by looking at expressions used in current newspapers. The expressions in this week’s post are taken from a range of national newspapers that were published on February 5th, 2020. Continue reading “Beds of roses and sore thumbs (Newspaper idioms)”

See you on the march! (The language of protests)

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by Kate Woodford

On September 20th, four million people across the globe expressed their concern and anger about climate change by demonstrating (=gathering or walking in a public place to show their opinion). We thought this a good time to look at the language of demonstrating.

First up, the verb protest is a synonym for ‘demonstrate’: Employees are protesting against the cuts. In US English especially, ‘protest’ is often used transitively: Students protested the laws. A phrase that is frequently used, especially in newspapers, to mean ‘protest’ is take to the streets: Millions took to the streets in the largest environmental protest in history. Continue reading “See you on the march! (The language of protests)”